For once, a game is not for sale

The message wasn't sponsored by anyone, but somehow Michigan and Ohio State managed to hear it just in time.
Tradition doesn't carry a price tag. And some things -- like 107-year-old rivalries -- shouldn't be for sale.
Granted, it took a while for the people running the two universities to figure it out. But, at a time when even the grandaddy of them all can become the Sony Playstation grandaddy of them all and national championships can be won in a bowl game named after a corn chip, give them some credit for finally taking a stand.
Ohio State-MichiganSBC Classic
In case you missed it, the annual football meeting between the schools known to everyone involved as simply The Game was about to go corporate and be rechristened the SBC Michigan-Ohio State Classic.
To the bean counters and marketing types at both schools, the million dollars being offered by SBC Communications must have seemed like found money. And what's really in a name anyway?
Plenty, it seems, to the fans who let Michigan athletic director Bill Martin know that tampering with this tradition was unacceptable. To them, it didn't matter that SBC sponsors the annual Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas or that Dr. Pepper has naming rights to the Big 12 championship game.
Just don't mess with The Game.
The decision probably came as good news for the Ohio State marching band, which dots its I with a great flourish but would have had to practice long hours to come up with a new SBC formation.
Payout wouldn'tmake or break them
The Buckeyes would have gotten $260,000 a year from the deal, but don't think the Ohio State football team will be holding car washes to pay for new uniforms. The school has an athletic budget of $85 million a year, the most of any university in the country. While the money was insignificant to the two athletic powerhouses, the symbolism of their decision wasn't.
NCAA president Myles Brand could be excused for engaging in hyperbole. He could also be accused of being hypocritical.
His is the Coca Cola CBS NCAA, propped up by companies that will pay out more than $500 million this year for television and sponsorship rights. Try to drink a Pepsi courtside at the Final Four and either you or your drink will be escorted from the arena.
The NCAA sits by idly as television controls college sports, forcing teams to play on odd nights or late at night while abruptly changing game times without regard for the inconvenience caused to the fans who want to attend the game.
NCAA hypocrisiesnothing new
It won't allow Jeremy Bloom to play football at Colorado because he has skiing sponsors, but then goes after anyone who might try to make a dime off of terms like March Madness, Final Four or Big Dance without its permission.
About the only thing not for sale is an official online sports book to make wagers on the games.
And then there's the BCS, which long ago hijacked college football's biggest games for profit, giving rise to a bowl season filled with Tostitos delivered by FedEx ordered on cell phones made by Nokia.
Even the Rose Bowl was forced to get a sponsor if it wanted to remain the grandaddy of them all. Tradition is one thing, but money and ratings are another, and if you need any proof just look at how fast the Rose Bowl dumped its Pac-10 vs. Big 10 winner format so it could stay in the big bowl mix.
Fans, for the most part, have reacted passively to almost all of it. They're willing to be bombarded with sponsor messages, willing to see traditions uprooted, willing to allow computers to decide which school has the best football team and willing to let television tell them a Thursday night game is better than a Saturday afternoon on campus.
Don't expectit to change
Don't expect that to change just because some Michigan fans finally stood up and said The Game was not for sale, not even for a million dollars.
Still, for one Saturday afternoon this fall, some of the pureness will return to college football when Michigan travels to Ohio State Nov. 20 for the 101st meeting of one of the great rivalries ever.
The Ohio State band will be at its I dotting best, and Michigan fans will pump fists in the air with each "Hail, hail" of their fight song.
And there won't be a SBC logo anywhere in sight.
XTim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org
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